Homework, Instructional Strategies, Mod 5, 6516

The reading this week highlighted the other various ways in which homework could and should be utilized by a general education population. It provided me with new insight and skills should I begin working with general education students on a regular basis.

With a brief time spent in a general education classroom almost all of my teaching has been with students in Special Education classroom settings. The use of homework with these students is primarily for the additional practice and helping students get into the habit of having to do additional work each day when they get home from school. Their daily homework is also used to reinforce a lesson that was taught earlier during the school day.

One of the ideas mentioned in the Classroom Instruction that Works, was the idea of using homework before a new topic has begun to access prior knowledge about a subject (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler & Stone, 2012). As a Special Education teacher this isn’t something that I have previously done. It would be interesting to see how to incorporate this into material for next year.

Often the majority of the homework being sent home each day is in the area of math. It is used to provide students with some reinforcement about their skills and helps encourage their self-confidence. For this reason, in my Special Education class, math homework was routinely given out that was highly modified to promote student’s self-confidence. For example students were given fewer items to complete than the handout required (only having to complete the ‘odd’ or ‘even’) or a new homework page would be created to focus only on the skills that the student felt confident in already.

My own experience with the use of homework is for a very particular part of the student population. I think the way Special Education teachers modify homework is effective because as Dean et al. (2012) state it is “directly tied to the skills needed for achieving mastering of learning objectives” (Dean et al., 2012, p. 104). I worked to ensure that

Reference:

Pitler, H. & Stone, B., (2012). A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Dean, C. B., Hubble, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom Instruction That Works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Close Reading, Instructional Strategies, video analysis #1

Close reading is a strategy used to help focus attention on specific aspects of a passage by asking students pay close attention during each of the multiple readings. The teacher in the video helped students work with a complex passage and had active involvement from her students throughout the lesson. The teacher helped students discover the meaning of the reading passage, the deeper intent of the author, their own feelings around the passage. The teacher of this 10^th grade class had an extraordinary use of a variety of instructional strategies throughout the presentation.

The teacher began the lesson by presenting the learning objective. She gave a quick reminder about what close reading is, and then told students what they would be doing for this lesson. The learning objective notified students that they would be reading this text numerous times and that each read-through would bring new insight and would require different observation and action. By setting the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ she was helping students understanding what was expected of them for that lesson (Pitler & Stone, 2012).

What really caught my attention was the use of cues and questions throughout the lesson. It was a highly effective strategy to use with this group of students because it activated their prior knowledge, kept them engaged on the lesson, working together, searching for answers in the text and on their toes (not knowing what the teacher would be asking next or who would be called upon). The teacher put to use all four recommendations for the learning milieu from the Classroom Instruction that Works text including; focusing on what is important, using explicit cues and asking both inferential and analytic questions (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler & Stone, 2012).

She also summarizes and links together student’s responses to help students work on their own positions to see if they agree or disagree and can come up with an understanding or agreement. Summarizing helps students capture and organize the important information as well as make connections (Pitler & Stone, 2012).

Her formatting of questions also is a way to provide feedback and recognition to students, she asks them to verify what they know, and then asked if they can justify their comments. She gives the student praise or further questions before moving on. She shows recognition by letting students know what the lesson challenges will be. This master-goal orientation helps students become aware of how they can show effort to succeed (Pitler & Stone, 2012).

The video excellent example of breaking down the steps and expectations of the lesson, in this case close reading. She used an open discussion format (not waiting for quiet raised hands. This open format of calling out answers provided a much better flow for conversation about the topic. As a teacher of students in Special Education I appreciated the way she provided numerous steps to help readers break down the text and figure out the passage.

She also showed enthusiasm for the style of reading “this is why close reading is so cool because this one reading of that first section completely changes it”.

The teacher brought awareness about hearing other’s perspectives, the characters and the action and/ or results of the text. The one area I could see that might improve the lesson would be to incorporate notes by adding student comments or highlighting information on the document camera for all students to see.

Reference:

Pitler, H. & Stone, B., (2012). A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Dean, C. B., Hubble, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom Instruction That Works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Close reading, grade 10, Video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFRClI2q18Y

Note taking, Instructional Strategies

I specifically chose note taking to review this week in the Instructional Surveys class because the students with Special Needs that I work with rarely take notes. I wanted to learn more about the various approaches and see if there were specific ways that I would be able to break down the note taking steps to make them more manageable for my students. I thought it was an interesting time to reflect on note taking. As a current student I take notes all the time. Since I’m able to go back to those notes and understand them I consider them to be effective as a study guide to help set the information into my memory. Other than outline format, I don’t remember specifically ever being taught how to take notes.

One of the strategies presented by Dean, Hubbell, Pitler & Stone (2012) was to present notes already prepared by the teacher, another was to directly teach students how to take notes (using a variety of approaches) and their third suggestion was to promote alterations to the notes. These three suggestions provided a way for me to approach note taking with my students who are in Special Education.

To begin with I could easily prepare a set of notes for students to work with and suggest that they make additional comments onto the notes. When teaching students how to take notes I could use the document camera and write my notes along side the presentation material to show students what I’m focusing on. Finally as part of the direct teaching experience I could ask students to continue looking at and revising the notes explaining how the added attention to the material will help them remember it better and will aid them with whatever writing or assessment follows up the unit.

These steps are very simple and I look forward to incorporating them into my teaching practice next year.

Reference:

Pitler, H. & Stone, B., (2012). A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Dean, C. B., Hubble, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom Instruction That Works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Why are questions so important? Instructional Strategies, Mod 3

Questions can be a gateway into getting students to talk more. Sometimes all it takes is the right question to get a student to open up and answer or better yet, begin a discussion about the topic. I think as teachers we tend to use questions so often throughout our day that we may forget to change up our style and ask for additional types of responses.

There are three categories of thinking that are required to answer questions; analytical, literal and inferential (Pitler & Stone, 2012). Many teachers (myself included) tend to favor certain categories and only occasionally venture into others.

Upon reflecting on my use of questions I noticed that I tend to ask a lot of questions that call for literal or inferential thinking and not a tremendous amount of analytical thinking. I would like to focus on and improve my use of analytical questions. It was an interesting practice to review my work and make this discovery. Moving forward I can search out a wider variety of questions to use in my lesson plans to help students’ analytical thinking. This can also include ways to incorporate student’s asking or interviewing each other to aid understanding.

I often find myself answering student’s questions with questions of my own. I find it helps their thinking enormously if they’re not told directly to what they’re hoping to hear, instead have to do some further thinking about it, do some research or collaborate with teammates for further information.

Questions can be an incredibly effective way to help students round out their thinking and lead them to a next level of discovery as they journey to learn more about a topic. Questions can be used to stay focused and engaged with a topic, access prior knowledge, help students work together, find answers and access the material.

The topic of questions helped me consider my own teaching practice and evaluate slight changes I can make to improvements. By incorporating more tier 3 and tier 4 level of questions which require higher order thinking, reflection and involving students in the act of asking questions I will be strengthening my students’ learning (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012). Using questions greatly helps students activate what student’s already know about a topic. Tapping into their prior knowledge ensures that they are making connections, building understanding and creating depth to their knowledge. In addition when directly taught as a skill, students can begin to ask themselves questions to aid in their understanding even outside the classroom.

Reference:

Pitler, H. & Stone, B., (2012). A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD, Denver, CO: MCREL Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.

Dean, C. B., Hubbell, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom instruction that works; research-based strategies for increasing student achievement (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD, Denver, CO: MCREL Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.

Teaching Effort, Instructional Strategies, Blog #2

One of the items I particularly enjoyed reading about this week was the ideas around teaching students how to demonstrate effort. The idea of explicitly teaching ‘effort’ to students was incredibly interesting (Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone, 2012). As someone who works with students in Special Education I think that I often comment about the effort that I see students showing. Where I’ve noticed room for improvement is in helping my students understand the correlation between their effort and their results (progress).

Some ideas suggested by Pitler & Stone (2012) discussing what that means in regards to academic work, and finding ways to have students monitor their effort and progress (Pitler & Stone, 2012). I look forward to utilizing some of the practical ideas that the book ‘A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that works’ suggested to help my students better understand that their effort is directly related to their performance and outcomes (Pitler & Stone, 2012). Although that correlation wasn’t something that I overtly practiced last year, it can be something that I can focus on and bring into my teaching practice for future years.

At our school one of the 5 pillars is ‘GRIT’. Our principal added that to our standard of ‘Service, Respect, Responsibility, and Safety’ and now the newest member of the group ‘Grit (We Don’t Give Up)’. Helping students realize the importance of sticking with it, and being determined and working hard are ideas that are supported and discussed school-wide. I look forward to seeing how this becomes more integrated in the Special Education classrooms.

Reference:

Dean, C. B., Hubbell, E. R., Pitler, H., & Stone, B. (2012). Classroom instruction that works; research-based strategies for increasing student achievement (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD, Denver, CO: MCREL Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.

Pitler, H. & Stone, B., (2012. A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD, Denver, CO: MCREL Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.

Instructional Strategies blog 1, feedback

The majority of my teaching experience has been with students in a Special Education setting. With the reading for this week in my Instructional Strategies class I’ve discovered that most of what is provided in those classrooms would fall into the praise category rather than the feedback category. The students that I’ve worked with often don’t complete classroom activity pages. Rather those are often started in class with an explanation and group work, then any remaining work is sent home that night for homework. Or perhaps a separate homework page is sent home, but little to no feedback is provided to the students about their work results or understanding.

When reviewing the rubrics regarding feedback in A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler & Stone, 2012) I discovered that most of the classrooms that I’ve worked in as a paraeducator would only score a 1 or possibly a 2 in the general area of feedback. There must be a reason why Special Education teachers refrain from providing more feedback to students. I can’t begin to make assumptions about why, instead I’ll bring this up to discuss with my mentor teacher to see what insight she can provide.

It was during my time spent in a general education setting during my internship that I started consistently incorporating feedback to students. This is beneficial because it means that questions that a student may have had on a way to solve a type of problem get answered and that they get a chance to hear valuable information from the teacher. Using feedback consistently in the general education setting helped me become more familiar with the process and I plan on using it as I move forward next year in my own classroom.

Reference:

Pitler, H. & Stone, B., (2012). A handbook for classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD, Denver, CO: MCREL Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.